The Atlantic (10/23/13) James Somers Indiana University professor and artificial intelligence expert Douglas Hofstadter directs the Fluid Analogies Research Group (FARG) in a mission to understand how humans think and to write software that functions in the same manner. FARG believes the mind is akin to a unique piece of software and to understand how software works, you must write it yourself. If successful, the group will not only explain human thought, but also make truly intelligent machines. Although in the early 1980s Hofstadter was hailed as a leader in the emerging AI field, his popularity waned as AI proved more difficult than first envisioned and mainstream AI embraced more attainable goals. For example, IBM in 1988 started a language translation project called Candide, opting for a machine-learning approach instead of trying to create a system with a true understanding of semantics, syntax, and morphology. However, Hofstadter dismisses AI shortcuts such as IBM's Deep Blue, which mastered the game of chess but had no deeper insights. "To me, as a fledgling AI person, it was self-evident that I did not want to get involved in that trickery," he says. Although many believe that Hofstadter's work will not yield tangible results in his lifetime, Hofstadter points out that Einstein developed the light-quantum hypothesis in 1905, but it was not accepted until 1923.Full Article